54 Collective, formerly called Founders Factory Africa, closes its venture studio due to dispute with Mastercard Foundation

Following legal action that ended its partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, 54 Collective, a venture firm that was previously known as Founders Factory Africa, has closed its venture studio operations.

Founders Factory began operations in Africa in Johannesburg in 2018 after first opening in London in 2015. In collaboration with Standard Bank, the company introduced its model to Africa. It then obtained support from Small Foundation to invest in agri-tech and Netcare to offer a platform for entrepreneurs to launch and grow e-health businesses throughout Africa.

Last August, it announced a rebranding and name change to 54 Collective, changing its business model to better support transformative technology ventures across the continent through catalytic capital and value-add support through its Venture Success Platform. In 2023, it secured an additional US $114 million in funding from Johnson & Johnson and the Mastercard Foundation to scale its model to better serve founders across the African tech ecosystem.

54 Collective’s venture studio, Gen F accelerator, and Entrepreneur Academy were supported by the Mastercard Foundation funding. However, earlier this year, it was announced that the partnership had ended, resulting in some job losses, because the two organizations “pursue different strategies.”

Court decisions have now revealed, however, that 54 Collective actually used limited charitable grant funds for its rebranding, to which the Mastercard Foundation objected. The company then sought to file for bankruptcy in order to avoid paying back the money. In the end, this led to Africa Founders Ventures (AFV), its operating company, being liquidated by a court order.